Buy When There’s Oil in the Water
Christopher Pavese submits:
Baron Rothschild, an 18th century British nobleman, is credited with saying, “The time to buy is when there’s blood in the streets.” Fast forward to today, and one might suggest that, “The time to buy is when there’s oil in the water.” Crisis creates opportunity for the disciplined investor, and the unfortunate disaster caused by the BP Blunder has produced one of the most compelling long term values we have ever come across. As they say, “ever” is quite a long time.
We recently watched a certain TV personality jumping up and down, like Jo-Jo The Idiot Circus Boy with a pretty new pet, and yelling at his viewers to “Sell, Sell, Sell” The St. Joe Company (JOE) after the stock had lost nearly half of its market capitalization in under two months. Viewers were told, “I know it’s got a strong balance sheet. So What! It may have acquired 477,000 acres of land in North West Florida at a very low cost. So What! … The risk from the oil spill is no longer a question of if, it’s not even a question of when. Now the only question is how much is this going to hurt? Could it wipe out the company?”
